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Saturday, May 12, 2012

The three greatest tombs in the world are: the pyramid of Khufu in Egypt, the Mausoleum of First Emperor of Qin, China, and Emperor Nintoku's tomb in Japan.

Emperor Nintoku's tomb in Japan has a total length of 486 meters (1500 feet) and a height of 35 meters (110 feet). The longest width is about 300 meters. The total outer circumference outside the moat is about 2,718 meters (1.7 miles).

However there are no written records about how and when it was built in an area presently called Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. It is estimated that this emperor's tomb was constructed from the early to the middle 5th century.

Originally it must have looked as below, though depicted in the present environment:

Emperor Nintoku, one day, watched the capital from an upper floor of his palace. But he could not see many smokes rising from kitchen furnaces of people's households. People did not look like cooking gorgeously at all. Weather condition did not look favorable, either. So, the emperor thought, "As we have launched military campaigns in many times to the Korean Peninsula, people must be exhausted. Since the economic situation around the palace is so bad, how terrible it is far from the capital."

So, Emperor Nintoku decided to stop imposing tax and compulsory labor for three years. The emperor also ordered to make rituals and other activities in the imperial court simple and economical. And finally a climate was improved and agriculture production returned to a previous high level. People came to have reasonable lives and their morale got strengthened.

Accordingly, Emperor Nintoku said, "Now people have become affluent again." But his empress said, "Who is affluent?. Look at our palace and our clothing, all worn out and in rags." Nintoku defended, saying, "If people have become rich, we will be also rich naturally." Yet, Emperor Nintoku decided to found a special agency to take care of living of his son and another agency to take care of living of the empress.

In September of the year, his subjects reported to the emperor that local countries fully recovered from the attrition. Officials wanted to collect tax again. But, Emperor Nintoku stopped application of taxation.

Further three years passed. Then as winter came, Emperor Nintoku decided to revamp his palace. But before the emperor issued an order, people came to work spontaneously to the palace. The imperial palace was in this way restored to have splendor again. So, people started to call Ninton the holy emperor.

This is a story about Emperor Nintoku recorded in the oldest imperial history/myth book called the Chronicles of Japan.

Friday, May 11, 2012

After WWII there was a medical doctor in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, who was so kind that he did not even request consultation fees to his neighbors. The doctor especially took care of children nearby.

Shiro Ishii was a controversial man as he led a special unit of the Imperial Army in Manchuria to study biological warfare. Accordingly, ex-medical lieutenant general Ishii could have been executed by the occupation forces which set the Far East Military Tribunal in Tokyo to judge Japanese war criminals after WWII. Ishii during the war had reportedly ordered to use living prisoners of war, namely arrested Chinese, Manchus, Koreans, and even Russians, for experiments and tests to study effects of decease-causing bacteria on the human body. It is said that his unit, called Unit 731, sacrificed 3,000 prisoners of war for human experimentation during WWII.

Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II....

Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (now Northeast China)....

Many of the scientists involved in Unit 731 went on to prominent careers in post-war politics, academia, business, and medicine. Some were arrested by Soviet forces and tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials; others surrendered to the American Forces.

On 6 May 1947, Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, wrote to Washington that "additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as 'War Crimes' evidence." The deal was concluded in 1948.

While only a limited number of U.S. documents mention Unit 731, a documented link can be made from Saunders and Macarthur all the way up to President Truman.

A 2006 document released by the National Archives entitled "Researching Japanese War Crimes: Introductory Essays" details a 1950 memo describing clemency issues related to the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.

The memo revealed that the U.S., at the time, was seeking ways to dismiss any new evidence against Japan that the Soviets might produce.

According to the Virginia-based nonprofit World Future Fund, Ishii’s Unit 731 "research" was meant to give the Japanese military an upper hand on the battlefield, but wound up benefiting the U.S. military instead.

The U.S. was secretly delighted to gain such information derived from experiments that they themselves were forbidden to perform, and even happier that the Soviets wouldn’t have access to Ishii’s results.

It is said that one US medical officer got delighted that he obtained information that could be only gained through human experiment from former Unit 731 officers while such human experiment was impossible in the US. American investigators from the beginning had no intention to arrest and execute Ishii and other officers of the Imperial Army involved in development of biological weapons. Those American experts were more eager to produce reports with excellent academic results than to carry out punishment for those Japanese war criminals.

From 1945, when the Empire of Japan collapsed, to 1948, former lieutenant general Ishii was hiding in Japan with help not only from former military elites of the Empire but also from the US military. Ishii even held funeral rites for himself in his hometown around Tokyo. Those ex-Imperial military elites were afraid that Ishii's past might, if revealed to the public, involve them in persecution by the allied forces as identified war criminals. The US military did not want to share the medical data Ishii could provide with the Soviet Union. They all helped Ishii hide somewhere in Japan or specifically around Tokyo.

But Ishii's whereabouts became unknown between 1948 and 1958, a period of time when the Korean War was fought by the US military against North Korea, China, and virtually the USSR.

So, some people think that Shiro Ishii, an ex-Imperial medical lieutenant general, was secretly recruited by Americans to take part in some military operation in the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War. There is a possibility that Ishii helped conduct a biological attack on communists in cooperation with an American special unit. Even there is a rumor that Ishii was invited to some medical facilities in America run by the US Government.

In fact, one of Ishii's subordinate officers in the Imperial Army so strongly cooperated with American investigators as to become a friend of one of those Americans. Their friendship continued so long while the ex-Imperial officer launched a blood bank as the first in this field in Japan. Decades later, a company founded as an extension of this blood bank, however, started a trouble of providing blood derivatives for hospitals which were made from contaminated blood imported from the US and other countries.

In 1958 Ishii made his appearance in an alumni meeting of ex-young soldiers of the 731 Unit held in Tokyo. He said to his former subordinates, "I know you suffered enough after WWII as you worked in Unit 731. But now I want you to be proud of your past work. Sometime in future, at appropriate timing, I will make public the great results of our study in Manchuria to the world..."

Then one year after this meeting, Ishii died of larynx cancer quietly in a Tokyo hospital, at the age of 67.

However the existence of the special unit 731 indicates the darkest side of the Imperial military of Japan, since it is believed that soldiers from Unit 731 were actually engaged in biological warfare against China during the war between 1937 and 1945. It is also against international conventions to use prisoners of war as human guinea pigs. Therefore, when Tokyo decided to surrender to the US and other allied nations in August 1945, Ishii and other leaders of Unit 731 ordered soldiers to destroy all the evidence for their secret operation in Manchuria. But the most important evidence, general Ishii and other officers were not demolished.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The true enemy in the Japan-US War, which was fought as part of WWII, was thought by General MacArthur and other US leaders to be the Japanese shinto religion.

Dec 15, 1945:
MacArthur orders end of Shinto as Japanese state religion

On this day, General Douglas MacArthur, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in the Pacific, brings an end to Shintoism as Japan's established religion. The Shinto system included the belief that the emperor, in this case Hirohito, was divine.

On September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, MacArthur signed the instrument of Japanese surrender on behalf of the victorious Allies. Before the economic and political reforms the Allies devised for Japan's future could be enacted, however, the country had to be demilitarized. Step one in the plan to reform Japan entailed the demobilization of Japan's armed forces, and the return of all troops from abroad. Japan had had a long history of its foreign policy being dominated by the military, as evidenced by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoye's failed attempts to reform his government and being virtually pushed out of power by career army officer Hideki Tojo.

Step two was the dismantling of Shintoism as the Japanese national religion. Allied powers believed that serious democratic reforms, and a constitutional form of government, could not be put into place as long as the Japanese people looked to an emperor as their ultimate authority. Hirohito was forced to renounce his divine status, and his powers were severely limited—he was reduced to little more than a figurehead. And not merely religion, but even compulsory courses on ethics—the power to influence the Japanese population's traditional religious and moral duties—were wrenched from state control as part of a larger decentralization of all power.http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/macarthur-orders-end-of-shinto-as-japanese-state-religion

So, when the US and allied forces occupied Japan after WWII, their supreme commander General MacArthur made very strong efforts to weaken power of the religion shintoism in the Japanese society. However, to effectively carry out his occupation mission and policies, the General needed a kind of help from the Emperor of Japan. As long as the most influential person in Japan, the Emperor, acted following advice, suggestions, and intentions of the General Headquarters of the allied forces in Tokyo, the Japanese people accepted peacefully the occupation by foreign troops. But, the religion of the imperial house is one school of shinto. Accordingly, General MacArthur could not fully demolish the shinto system and traditions deeply rooted in the living of the Japanese people. And in this context the notable Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo could survive this difficult era after WWII, though the Shrine enshrined fallen soldiers of the Empire of Japan.

The point at issue is that the US tried after WWII or while occupying Japan militarily to lessen the power and the influence the Japanese inherent religion shinto had, since shinto was regraded as the great source of courage and allegiance of tough Japanese soldiers. But, the US has not systematically lessened the power and the influence of Islam in Iraq and Afghanistan, though it blindly purged the Taliban regime based on a stern school of Islam. This is a big difference between America's occupation of Japan after WWII and that of Iraq and Afghanistan in the War on Terror.

BBC: Do you think the war against terror is really a war against Islam? Are Muslims being targeted by the war on terror?
Your reaction :...If America avenges the terrible attack on their own people by killing far more people from Muslim countries, which it has done in Afghanistan and shortly will in Iraq, then it will be seen as a war on Muslims, and that Muslim life is worth less than American life. It will also increase not reduce terrorism.
Paul, England

When the War on the Pacific, as fought as part of WWII, ended, the US found that its true enemy is not good-natured Japanese people but shinto, a religion that gave effective power to Japanese militarists to control sternly Japanese soldiers and civilians.

But will the US, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are ended, regard Islam as the true enemy of America?

On the other hand there are many Muslims in the US, though only very few shintoists in America. America might come to draw a distinction between Islam in the US and Islam outside the US.

Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream
May 22, 2007

- A large majority of Muslim Americans believe that hard work pays off in this society. Fully 71% agree that most people who want to get ahead in the United States can make it if they are willing to work hard.

- Based on data from this survey, along with available Census Bureau data on immigrants' nativity and nationality, the Pew Research Center estimates the total population of Muslims in the United States at 2.35 million.

- A majority of Muslim Americans (53%) say it has become more difficult to be a Muslim in the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Most also believe that the government "singles out" Muslims for increased surveillance and monitoring.

- Relatively few Muslim Americans believe the U.S.-led war on terror is a sincere effort to reduce terrorism, and many doubt that Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Just 40% of Muslim Americans say groups of Arabs carried out those attacks.

From other point of a view, shinto is a religion for Japanese living in Japan. If Japanese move to America, they will become naturally less and less shinto. But, Muslims are Muslims if they live in the US. Or have they become an American version of Muslims?

One thing sure is that the US has not become safer from a military threat of Japan because it made strong efforts to decrease influence of shinto on the Japanese society after WWII. The US has become safer as the Japanese people understood after WWII that America was based on American democracy and American Christianity the Japanese could understand and even respect.

Put simply, the War on Terror should be executed with intention to make American democracy and American Christianity fully respected by Muslims and poor Muslims in the world.

It means the key to American success in any war against a foreign country is more in its political system and religion than those in Islamic nations or even in China.

So, it also means the last enemy of America is something against its sound political system and religion that is inside the US.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

There was one politician of the Empire of Japan who played a key role in the period of time leading to the Pearl Harbor Attack, since Konoe tried to avoid the war despite strong movement for the war in the imperial military.

Prince Fumimaro Konoe (1891 – 1945) was a politician in the Empire of Japan who served as the 34th, 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan and founder/leader of the Taisei Yokusankai....

While the Emperor received detailed reports from Sugiyama and Nagano about the operations in Southeast Asia and the attack of Pearl Harbor,[5] Prime Minister Konoe made one last desperate attempt to avoid war. That very evening, he arranged a secret dinner conference with American Ambassador Joseph Grew. He told Grew that he was prepared to travel to meet Roosevelt on a moment's notice. The ship had already been prepared. He was convinced that the United States and Japan could reach a true agreement, and when that happened, he would radio back to the palace, and the Emperor would issue a rescript ordering a complete halt to all aggressive activities.

Ambassador Grew was impressed with Konoe's sincerity. He cabled back, urging his superiors to advise Roosevelt to accept the summit proposal. The State Department continued to think that an open-ended summit was a waste of time. If Japan were serious, it would begin meaningful and detailed negotiations that would be affirmed at a summit. Konoe's last push for a diplomatic solution was taken in vain.

However, at the time, Konoe worried about insufficient secret funds in the prime minister office, since he assumed the position in the middle of a fiscal year. But later, the finance minister of his cabinet told Konoe that past prime ministers booked secret funds for the prime minister office as part of expenditures for the Imperial Army and Navy. So, of course, Konoe started to follow suit.

Anyway Konoe was well known for his strict handling of money.

After the Empire of Japan surrendered, Konoe started to try to draft new Japanese Constitution. Konoe met General MacArthur, the supreme commander of the allied forces occupying Japan, to get consent and support for his effort. But when General MacArthur knew that Konoe's draft or idea was to continue the imperial system as it had been before the end of WWII, General MacArthur changed his attitudes toward Konoe. MacArthur ordered to arrest Konoe as a war criminal. Then Fumimaro Konoe committed a suicide before being taken to a prison.

The new Japanese Constitution strongly reflects General MacArthur's idea that the emperor of Japan should be a symbol of unification of all the Japanese people but not a constitutional sovereign ruler like he had been in the Empire of Japan before the end of WWII.

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Mat 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

In the summer of 1945 or at the final phase of WWII, Japanese Imperial Navy officer Yoshiro Fujimura met secretly with Allen Dulles in Switzerland.

Fujimura believed the Empire of Japan could not change the tide. As Germany surrendered, the Empire of Japan would be completely defeated. So, he voluntarily started secret operation to negotiate with American Government agent Dulles aiming at finding a way to allow the Empire of Japan to surrender while saving its face and maintaining the imperial system. He sent 35 telegram messages to Tokyo from Bern using a special cipher machine, to inform leaders of the Imperial Navy of contents of the meetings with Dulles and other American agents.

It was not only Fujimura that was engaged in secret operation to look for a way to put an end to the Japan-US war through communications with agent Dulles in the summer of 1945. Imperial Army General Kiyotomi Okamoto was also separately working on Dulles in Switzerland in vain.

(However, Tokyo did not regard the secret operation in Switzerland as a hopeful channel. The Imperial Government laid its hope in getting support from the Soviet Union in its effort to start negotiations with the US for termination of the war, without knowing that the USSR was determined to attack Japan soon.)

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima, an industrial/military city of Japan, was attacked with an atomic bomb by the US air force. On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union proclaimed war against the Empire of Japan; on the same day, Nagasaki, a major port city of Japan, was attacked with an atomic bomb by the US air force. On August 15, 1945, Emperor of Japan announced through radio broadcasting his decision to accept the Potsdam Declaration and thus surrender to the US (without conditions).

In Zurich, Swizterland, General Okamaoto committed a suicide, since he failed in his efforts to terminate the war without accepting the Potsdam Declaration that required unconditional surrender to the Empire.

Imperial Navy officer Fujimura also decided to commit a suicide. After attending a funeral of General Okamaoto, Fujimura thought now it was his time to follow suit when he came back to Bern. Fujimura picked up a bag to put a handgun and two books in it: a work by Arnold Toynbee and Analects of Confucius. He also had a capsule of potassium prussiate. He took a train to Bernina; he got there in the evening and took a room. He planned to jump into a crevasse of a glacier with the capsule in his mouth.

Next morning he met a herdboy who was leading cows to the foot of a mountain. The boy said to Fujimura, "Will you come with me?" So, Imperial officer Fujimura followed the boy to be amazed at the beautiful scenery. Fujimura threw himself on the grass of a hill and started to read the book of Toynbee. He was reading the book all day long. Next morning again, he followed the boy to the mountain. And on the fourth day, while reading the book, Fujimura thought that he owed many things to the world civilization so that he had to do something in return; he changed his mind and decided to live. He threw the pistol and the capsule into a crevasse to go back to Bern and eventually to Japan.

After WWII, ex-Imperial Navy officer Yoshiro Fujimura succeeded in business, trading equipment and so on. In 1951 he wrote in a Japanese magazine his memories of the secret operation in Switzerland. He even met with Allen Dulles in the US in 1953, who later became the Director of CIA.

However it is not known if Fujimura was involved in special activities in Japan to support Allen Dulles and CIA. But, it is believed that introduction of nuclear technology from the US to Japan was promoted or supported by some Japanese associated with Allen Dulles and CIA.

Today, it is thought that secret meetings of General Okamaoto and Lieutenant Colonel Fujimura with Dulles in Switzerland was not meaningless, since the US Government came to understand from reports sent by Dulles that the Japanese wanted maintenance of the imperial system as a condition for surrender above all. In fact, the US Government neither requested abolition of the imperial system to Japan nor tried to question wartime responsibility of the Emperor.

Lieutenant Colonel Fujimura stationed in Germany had been ordered to return to Japan in 1944, getting on board a big submarine the Imperial Navy dispatched from Japan to a German base in France. But the submarine I-52 was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean before it reached France from Japan. Accordingly Fujimura moved to Bern, Switzerland, to help Japanese diplomats. The submarine was found at the bottom of the sea, 5,240 meters below the surface, in 1998.

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Mar 5:8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.Mar 5:9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.Mar 5:10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.Mar 5:11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.Mar 5:12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.Mar 5:13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

Monday, May 07, 2012

After the Empire of Japan fell through the war against the US, General MacArthur, the supreme commander of the allied forces occupying Japan, indicated his idea about new Japanese Constitution.

Three basic points stated by Supreme Commander to be "musts" in constitutional revision.

COPY

SECRET

I
Emperor is at the head of the state.
His succession is dynastic.
His duties and powers will be exercised in accordance with the Constitution and responsive to the basic will of the people as provided therein.

II
War as a sovereign right of the nation is abolished. Japan renounces it as an instrumentality for settling its disputes and even for preserving its own security. It relies upon the higher ideals which are now stirring the world for its defense and its protection.
No Japanese Army, Navy, or Air Force will ever be authorized and no rights of belligerency will ever be conferred upon any Japanese force.

III
The feudal system of Japan will cease.
No rights of peerage except those of the Imperial family will extend beyond the lives of those now existent.
No patent of nobility will from this time forth embody within itself any National or Civic power of government.
Pattern budget after British system.

MacArthur's idea was conveyed through his subjects to Japanese politicians in charge of drafting new Constitution. And, eventually a draft of new Japanese Constitution was prepared by those Japanese in line with MacArthur's idea, which was passed by the Japanese parliament in 1946.

Since then, Japan has not modified any part of the Constitution which has the following features:
(1) Emperor is the symbol of unification of the Japanese people with only nominal and formal functions in politics.

(2) Democracy and human rights are assured the Japanese people of to the maximum extent.

(3) The Japanese Government renounces a right to make war and prepare military forces for war.

Put simply, this Constitution is completely opposite to militarism and totalitarianism the Japanese people badly suffered during WWII. And, since its publication in 1946, no amendment has been made to any articles of the Constitution. Yet, it has been a big concern among the conservative camp in the Japanese political communities. Most of conservative people want to change the Constitution, since the present version is heavily influenced by MacArthur's idea. They think it is a shame to have such Constitution that is highly influenced by American rulers who occupied Japan after WWII.

Nonetheless about half of Japanese voters do not find necessity to amend the Constitution. It is probably because they do not trust nationalists, rightists, and conservative politicians. For example, if you criticize the imperial house today, you do not feel any danger of being attacked by nationalists. But, if nationalists ideas should be put into new constitution, such freedom and sense of security might be lost. Japanese voters are afraid that amending the Constitution following initiatives of rightists might result in provisions to be specified which would limit freedom they are now enjoying. And, it is mostly rightists that want to amend the Constitution now.

Anyway as the memory of the defeat (accompanied by atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) of the Empire of Japan in WWII is still so acute, most of Japanese voters do not want to give any chance to nationalists for their expansion. Accordingly, most of the Japanese people are reluctant to effect constitutional change. But, the conservative opposition party LDP is very willing to carry out amendment of the Constitution. So, if a regime change should be achieved in the next general election, the LDP might propose a draft amendment to the parliament (called the Diet) sooner or later.

To make sure, the issue of amending the Constitution is closely linked to the Japan-U.S. Security Arrangements based on which the US has many military bases in Japan. If Japan decides to defend Japan without relying on US military forces, including American nuclear capability, it must abolish Article 9 that restricts government functions to use military forces against enemy countries. It means to regard the US as the same as other countries which can be an enemy or a threat to Japan in terms of national security. Conversely, if Japan continues to view the US as a special friendly country that will join defense activities of Japan, there is no need to repeal the present Constitution in terms of national security.

Other specifics of the current Japanese Constitution:

Prohibition of slavery: Guaranteed by Article 18. Involuntary servitude is only permitted as punishment for a crime.
Separation of Religion and State: The state is prohibited from granting privileges or political authority to a religion, or conducting religious education (Article 20).

Freedom of assembly, association, speech, and secrecy of communications: All guaranteed without qualification by Article 21, which forbids censorship.

Workers' rights: Work is declared both a right and obligation by Article 27 which also states that "standards for wages, hours, rest and other working conditions shall be fixed by law" and that children shall not be exploited. Workers have the right to participate in a trade union (Article 28).

Right to property: Guaranteed subject to the "public welfare". The state may take property for public use if it pays just compensation (Article 29). The state also has the right to levy taxes (Article 30).

Right to due process: Article 31 provides that no one may be punished "except according to procedure established by law". Article 32, which provides that "No person shall be denied the right of access to the courts," originally drafted to recognize criminal due process rights, is now understood as source of due process rights for civil and administrative law cases.[4]

Protection against unlawful detention: Article 33 provides that no one may be apprehended without an arrest warrant, save where caught in flagrante delicto. Article 34 guarantees habeas corpus, right to counsel, and right to be informed of charges. Article 40 enshrines the right to sue the state for wrongful detention.

Right to a fair trial: Article 37 guarantees the right to a public trial before an impartial tribunal with counsel for one's defence and compulsory access to witnesses.

Protection against self-incrimination: Article 38 provides that no one may be compelled to testify against themselves, that confessions obtained under duress are not admissible and that no one may be convicted solely on the basis of their own confession. Nevertheless, forced confessions still remain a common practice, according to some sources.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan

Luk 5:6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.Luk 5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.Luk 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.